"Mood Ring Garter Belts by Subscription"

One of these things is not like the other: Arby's x Birchbox, $88 rental products from Urban Outfitters and a prediction of Kohl's having a potential suitor. Listen now!

Show Notes:

Main Takeaways:

• Urban Outfitters has a new rental-subscription service, but will GenZ even care?

• 23andMe teams up with Airbnb to help consumers with their travel plans: is this super creepy, or genius?

• Amazon wants to create wearables that can sense emotions, just in case they don't have enough consumer data.

• Dress Barn closes 650 stores because shuttering stores is what all the cool kids are doing according to Coresight.

Urban Outfitters: Will Their Rental-Subscription Appeal to GenZ?

• Some background: Urban Outfitters was originally a retail store called Free People and was renamed Urban Outfitters in 1976, and it used to be the coolest kid on the block for hippy-esque fashion.

• And now, Urban Outfitters, probably to get it's mojo back, has launched a rental-subscription service (Nuuly) for $88 for up to six items per month.

• According to Kaleigh Moore writing for Forbes, Nuuly (which Phillip challenges Brian to spell) will function as it's own brand spearheaded by Urban Outfitters current Cheif Digital officer David Hayne.

• Here's a question though, will Urban Outfitters target market for this service be able to resist ruining the clothes?

Airbnb Teams Up With 23andMe For a Heritage Based Travel Collab:

• Phillip asks Brian what his preferred travel booking method would look like?

• Airbnb and 23andMe, are teaming up to recommend their customer heritage destinations based on countries of origin, which is not at all going to end in a PR disaster.

• Phillip says that the idea of 23andMe and AirBnB sharing the data they've collected with a third party is the creepy aspect, but ads that we've all probably signed those rights away in the fine print anyway.

• Brian says that collaboration commerce is going to be an increasing trend in retail.

Amazon Wants to Know All Your Feelings All The Time:

• So Amazon, being Amazon wants to create wearable products that can sense users emotions: because they don't have enough consumer data.

• For right now, this is just a patent filing, not an official product (which doesn't make it any less creepy)

• Is the future of retail mood-ring reminiscent clothing?

• There already is a dress that claims to change colors with the wearer's mood, and it's kind of awesome.

Store Closings Aren't Stopping Soon: Boring Retail is Dying:

• Coresight is predicting 12K store closings in 2019, which is double that of this time last year.

• It's what Steve Dennis might call "the boring middle."

• Dress Barn is closing all 650 of its stores, to which Brian says, "who cares?"

• Phillip makes a point that low-end stores closing like Payless may actually limit options in rural communities.

24 Month Prediction: Could Amazon Aquire Kohl's?

• So in the final story for the week, we discover that somehow earnings beats are pointing to Kohl's doing rather poorly.

• Phillip points out that these reports came out only a few weeks after Kohl's and Amazon formed their partnership.

• Kohls's is going to start accepting Amazon returns, which may drive much-needed traffic into their stores.

• Phillip makes a Future Commerce prediction that Amazon will acquire Kohl's within 24 months.

• Brian says it's either Kohl's, Best Buy or both.

So now we want to hear from you: What are your favorite collaborations in commerce right now?

Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.
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